French Pronunciation: Liaison

Linking syllables in French

This tutorial presents an overview of the rules of European/metropolitan French pronunciation,
focusing on the vowels, consonants, stress, and intonation patterns that
are different from American English. For more practice with comprehension
and pronunciation, please check the listening and repetition exercises.

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French Liaison

A loss of word boundaries in French makes it difficult to comprehend the
spoken language for beginning learners. All of the words seem to be linked
together without any clear divisions because the syllable boundaries do not
correspond to the word boundaries. In many cases, the last consonant from
one syllable (which is usually silent) will become the first consonant of
the next syllable (therefore, it is no longer silent). This linking between
syllables is called liaison, and it may or may not be required and the pronunciation
of the consonant may or may not change. Liaison leads to many homonymous
phrases, which can hinder comprehension. You must pay attention to the liaisons
in verb conjugations as well or you may mistake one verb for another.

The written consonants involved in liaison generally include d, s, x and p. However,
the pronunciation of d, s, and x is changed so that they become [t], [z] and [z], respectively.
The letter n that is written after nasal vowels becomes the nasal consonant
[n]. Peculiarly, the f of neuf is pronounced [v] only before ans and heures and
in all other cases, it remains [f]. Remember that h aspiré prevents liaison
from happening, i.e. there is no [z] sound between des and haricots.

Examples of Liaison

elles arrivent

mon amour

ils ont

les ours

vieux arbres

dans un sac

dix heures

très aimable

attend-il ?

plus ouvert

grand ami

il est allé

There are a few instances when you should always use liaison (liaison
obligatoire):